1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to motor driven reels for winding and storing flexible elongated structures, such as cords, hoses, tubing, cables, chains, and sheet materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
Reels include a rotatable hub or spool mounted inside a housing. Flexible elongated structures, such as conduits (e.g., electrical cords, hoses, cables, tubing, wire, etc.), sheet materials, structural cables, fencing, rebar, banding, straps, chains, and the like, may be wound about the spool for storage and unwound therefrom for use. Optionally, reels may be equipped with a retraction mechanism, such as a motor, operable to rotate the spool in a wind direction for the purposes of retracting or winding the elongated structure around the spool.
However, the elongated structure is typically unwound from the spool manually by pulling on the elongated structure causing the spool to rotate in an unwind direction opposite the wind direction. Unfortunately, when a user pulls on the elongated structure, the motor remains engaged with the spool. Thus, rotating the spool rotates the motor in a direction opposite the wind direction. In other words, to unwind the elongated structure from the spool, the motor must be “back driven.” Rotating both the motor and the spool requires additional force beyond that required to rotate the spool unencumbered by the motor. In this manner, the motor may be characterized as resisting the rotation of the spool in the unwind direction. Depending upon the design of the motor and the way in which it is connected to the spool, this resistance may be substantial. Further, back driving the motor results in the creation of undesirable noise.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to disconnect the motor or other retraction mechanism from the spool when the elongated structure is unwound from the spool (i.e., during extension of the elongated structure from the reel). Likewise, it would be advantageous to reconnect the motor or other retraction mechanism to the spool when retraction of the elongated structure is desired. The present application provides these and other advantages as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.